"Natural energy is very dangerous, so aside from Kiyonari-sama, everyone else must leave this room."
Hearing Katsuyu's warning, Kurama Murakumo squeezed his daughter's hand. "Yakumo—Dad will be right outside. Don't be nervous, okay?"
"I know, Dad." Kurama Yakumo nodded obediently.
He stood up and bowed to Katsuyu and Hyuga Kiyonari. "Please… take care of my daughter."
He gave Yakumo one last look, then turned and left the room together with Yūhi Kurenai.
"Then let's begin."
Katsuyu slowly crawled onto Yakumo's forehead. "Next you may feel some strange sensations, but that's normal. Don't resist."
"I understand."
Yakumo took a deep breath, but her body still tensed involuntarily.
Kiyonari thought for a moment, then said, "Yakumo—do you still want to hear me tell a story?"
She paused, then nodded. "…Okay."
"The story begins with a woman. When she gets off work and returns home, it's already past eleven at night. Dragging her exhausted body into an empty apartment, she can't even be bothered to turn on the lights…"
Just hearing the words, Yakumo's rich imagination automatically painted the scene in her mind. Am I really suited to drawing illustrations?
Kiyonari continued. "A man named R passes along information about 'the ship,' telling people who long to escape this world when and where the 'ship' will come to pick them up."
"But to the protagonist J and their companion K, R is a liar—working with the 'ship' to lure people away. So they begin investigating R's past, but they know almost nothing about him. They only learn that his wife committed suicide…"
"Suicide? Why?"
Yakumo couldn't help blurting it out. She was completely immersed now, and the tension in her body eased without her noticing.
Kiyonari shook his head. "No one knows. But after his wife's death, R becomes despairing of this world. No matter what, he wants to escape this hopeless place. For him—and for those like him—the 'ship' is hope."
Yakumo frowned slightly. "I still… can't really understand what kind of feelings they had, boarding that 'ship.'"
"That's normal," Kiyonari smiled. "In stories, whenever the hero says, 'Can't you feel the beauty in this world?' the villain always replies, 'If I could feel it, why would I be a villain?'"
"So you're saying… I'm the villain?"
"Hahaha… just kidding."
Then Kiyonari continued. "When J meets R, J asks: 'Tell me, R—why do they abandon this world and leave? Is this world really so worthless to them?'"
"But R denies it. He shakes his head and tells J: 'You've got it backwards.'"
"'They once believed this world could bring them happiness. They worked hard, followed the rules, did everything society expected them to do. But—'"
"'Could their real selves do even one thing they truly wanted to do? In their desperate work, they didn't even have time to think like that once.'"
"'The harder they worked, the more they felt their own weakness. The more they gave, the less they saw any reward. In the end, they couldn't even see their own existence anymore.'"
Yakumo's expression grew complicated. She seemed to hear something in those words.
The characters carried a contradiction—between the self in the mind and the self in the body, between reality and ideals. Like how no matter how hard she trained, her body simply wouldn't allow it.
"'So they wondered: is the one existing here… really me? But the world never answers their question.'"
Just then, Kiyonari suddenly switched into a light, even slightly ridiculous tone.
"And then the narrator appears and says: 'Lonely people always add illnesses to their hearts for no reason, so please actively raise some cats or dogs and other small animals.'"
Yakumo froze, then couldn't help laughing. "What is that? What kind of weird narration is that?"
"J asks him," Kiyonari's voice turned serious again, "'Are you the real R?'"
Are you the real R?
Are you the real… Kurama Yakumo?
Or am I only trying to become the "Kurama Yakumo" everyone expects?
Do I want to become a ninja truly for myself… or just to satisfy other people's expectations?
"Kiyonari… are you subtly hinting at me?"
Kiyonari shook his head. "I'm only telling a story. Before I met you, the story already existed in my head. One story seen by a thousand people becomes a thousand versions. A story doesn't have fixed meaning—the meaning is given by the reader."
Yakumo looked up. "I know exactly what I'm doing. Becoming a ninja isn't only because my clan expects it. I also don't want this talent to be buried."
She turned her eyes to his. "I want to become a ninja. That is the real Kurama Yakumo."
"So," Kiyonari asked, looking at her, "do you still want to hear the rest?"
Yakumo smiled. "Of course. Ultraman hasn't shown up yet."
"At the end… the 'ship' arrives. R tries to invite J aboard, but J says: 'If this ship is truly like what you said, then you wouldn't need it. Have you really gained nothing at all, and you still want to run away?'"
"J asks one final question: 'R, do you truly believe in this ship?' And R answers: 'I want to try to believe in it.'"
Yakumo clenched her fist slightly. "Did he find his true self at the very last moment?"
"Maybe," Kiyonari shook his head. "But the 'ship' is a liar. It kills R. In anger, J becomes Ultraman and destroys the 'ship.'"
"So that's the ending?"
"No. The ending is this: on an ordinary night, in an ordinary apartment, an ordinary woman thinks—'Can lonely me ever connect with anyone?'"
Yakumo looked confused. "If that's the case… then didn't nothing change? People would still wait for the next 'ship.' Then… what was the point of Ultraman appearing?"
Kiyonari answered her like this:
"In any story, Ultraman will appear, and he will destroy the monster, and he will draw a full stop at the end of the story."
Katsuyu's conditioning was finished. Kiyonari picked her up, and when Kurama Murakumo and Yūhi Kurenai slid the door open and rushed in, he said one last line:
"Let the next story begin."
~~~
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